He's really got to get his act together. This is going to have to go on the Millennial Job Review (I should add for 1001 to 2000, the Almighty received a 3.25 and a "5" scale, meaning his work was generally satisfactory but needed improvement. Allowing Hitler and the plague will do that to ya')

The latest example of the Lord's negligent retention can be seen in the State of Oklahoma (and really, judging by their Congressional Delegation God must think Oklahoma is just a good musical [he loved Curley]):

Richard Roberts told students at Oral Roberts University Wednesday that he did not want to resign as president of the scandal-plagued evangelical school, but that he did so because God insisted...

Which is all fine and good, except it only happened after God let the shit hit the fan, really this was all about God covering his almighty ass:

A lawsuit accuses Roberts of lavish spending at a time when the university faced more than $50 million in debt, including taking shopping sprees, buying a stable of horses and paying for a daughter to travel to the Bahamas aboard the university jet.

Roberts has previously said that God told him to deny the allegations.

I don't know about you, but I don't see Vishnu pullin' this shit, granted the dudes all hands...but still.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

So, a good night for for the lowest denominator, a bad night for the GOP. America got to see a vaguely threatening parade of gun fetishists, flat worlders, Mars Explorers, Confederate flag lovers and zombie-eyed-Bible-wavers as well as various one issue activists hammering their pet causes. My cheers went to a listless Fred Thompson who easily qualified himself to be president in my book by looking all night like he would cheerfully trade his left arm for an early exit off the stage to a waiting Scotch and good Cuban cigar. The media will probably award a win to Mike Huckabee, the easy listening music candidate at home in any crowd, fluent in simpleton speak and the one man on the stage tonight who led the audience to roaring cheers by boasting that he had a special qualification to be president that none of the second-raters on the stage could match: A degree in Bible Studies from Ouachita Baptist University of Arkadelphia, Arkansas.

I've got actual "live" work to do (as opposed to the decomposing work I normally do) so I'm busy and all I have is another snarky Rudy post...but not as snarky as the continuing "Great American Novel" that Res is putting forth.

I sincerely apologize, as my appearance at 4:30 in the morning could tell you, if I had a webcam.

Boy, last night's GOP "You Tube" debate was low brow. By now we all know that following in the codpiece of their party's last standard bearer, three or four of these stiffs style themselves as the new Jesus. To which I say, I had no idea that the Lord would return as such a diva. You have Romney, "Business Class Jesus"; Tancredo, "Jesus hatin' Jesus"; Thompson, oh I'm sorry, "Sleepy" was a dwarf, not the messiah.

And then there's Rudy Giuliani, "Broomstick Jesus". And what a boatload a miracles this guy has become. Just yesterday we find out Rudy cuddled up to buddies of Bin Laden right AFTER 9/11, all for the mighty dollar. I'm sure he did it because of 9/11 it's why he does everything, even before 9/11.

Which naturally explains his billing of all manner "security" expenses to various New York City government agencies so he could head up to Judy Nathan's place in the Hamptons where the tiara never came off and the safety word was, "Louima!" now of course it's "9/11"?

Rudy's explanation for these expenses is as follows:

"I had 24-hour security for the eight years that I was mayor. They followed me everyplace I went. It was because there were, you know, threats, threats that I don't generally talk about. Some have become public recently; most of them haven't."

I guess Rudy didn't really know the depths to which Donna Hannover would go. The nerve of her.

RUDY: Judi, can you just try to focus on what's really important here?

JUDI: Oh, I am, Rudy. I am. I'm focused on the fact that I'm only gonna get one use out of that fuckin' tiara. Did you know that I had Donatella working up designs for a gown for the inaugural ball that would go perfectly with that thing? And don't even think about asking me to hock it to pay for more TV ads. Face it, Rudy. You used money meant for wheelchair kids, legless vets, and the blind pencil salesmen outside Bloomindale's to screw your goomar in the Hamptons. I told you you shoulda bought me that place on Nantucket. Matthews and Russert would have kept this thing quiet. Now you've got Mort Zuckerman and that schmuck Mike Allen on our assess and I'll never get to wear my tiara again!

MADISON, Wisconsin (AP) - U.S. prosecutors have withdrawn a subpoena seeking the identities of thousands of people who bought used books through online retailer Amazon.com Inc., newly unsealed court records show. The withdrawal came after a judge ruled the customers have a right to keep their reading habits from the government...

Crocker who unsealed documents detailing the showdown against prosecutors' wishes _ said he believed prosecutors were seeking the information for a legitimate purpose. But he said First Amendment concerns about freedom of speech were justified and outweighed the subpoena's law enforcement purpose...

Crocker scolded prosecutors in July for not looking for alternatives earlier.«If the government had been more diligent in looking for workarounds instead of baring its teeth when Amazon balked, it's probable that this entire First Amendment showdown could have been avoided, he wrote.

Crocker's defense of American Values clearly shows he is an America Hater. Expect Bill O'Reilly's producers to descend upon you in your driveway sir.

So Peter Beinart --Iraqi War Supportin', opponent scoldin', Bush enablin', Peter Beinart joins the merry band of sociopaths and die-hards at Fred Hiatt's House of Punditry and opines on what Obama must do:

So what's Obama to do? He has to convince voters that his original antiwar stance still matters, that it's the key to understanding what makes him and Clinton different now. That's why Obama keeps trying to connect Clinton's Iraq vote to her recent vote designating Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist group, suggesting that once again she is giving Bush the green light to launch a war. Unfortunately for him, history doesn't generally repeat. The Iran resolution was rewritten to avoid any suggestion of military force precisely because Senate Democrats don't want to make the same mistake twice. In a sense, Obama should be flattered. On foreign policy, Clinton is not the same person she was five years ago. Much of what she says about the Middle East these days represents a tacit acknowledgment that she was wrong and he was right. Unfortunately, in our amnesiac country, you don't get elected president by saying, "I told you so."

Of course you don't, it doesn't even keep Peter Beinart from getting paid to write editorials.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

BAGHDAD, Nov. 27 — American troops killed at least five people, including a child, when they fired on vehicles trying to drive through roadblocks in two separate incidents in Iraq in the past two days, military officials and witnesses said today.

In further violence across Iraq, at least 30 other people were killed or found dead. In one incident today, a suicide bomber in Baquba claimed the lives of three women and three policemen.

Remember, you didn't hear this from me...and you certainly won't hear it on CNN.

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the everlasting War: We are trampling out the Muslims in a country that will let us waterboard; Bush hath loosed the fateful bloggers to proclaim his decomposing gourd: His lies are wanking on.

(Chorus) Glory, glory, what's it to ya? Bush and Cheney are our rul-ahs! Russert, O'Reilly, tell it to ya' The War forever marches on.

In the donated BushCo ranch in Texas where our sovereign Bush retreats, With a chubby in his codpiece that endangers you and me, As Jesus died to make the Decider, we must die for Richard B. Cheney, While Bush is wanking on.

(Chorus) Glory, glory, what's it to ya? Bush and Cheney are our rul-ahs! Russert, O'Reilly, tell it to ya' The War forever marches on.

An 800-year-old map, the sole surviving copy of a chart used by the Roman Empire's courier service, was put on show for just one day on Monday after being accorded "Memory of the World" status by UNESCO.

The vision solidifies, revealing a man dressed in glowing white robes with long-hair and a beard appears bearing a benevolent smile.

BUSH: Oh, no, Mormons -- what are you, one of Romney's people? And here I am without my special underoos on.

...oh wait. Oh my, it's that guy from that Mel Gibson movie, um, what was that called? Um...jeez, this is tough. He was Jewish and stuff.

VISITOR: It is I, who you call Jesus.

BUSH: Thanks, but that wasn't it.

VISITOR: George W. Bush, it is I, Jesus of Nazareth.

BUSH: Oh yeah. Hey, how ya' doin'? How'd you get in here?

VISITOR: Well, it's on the way to Damascus. (Makes Josh Bolton appear to do a rim shot)

BUSH: I don't get it. Anyway, I'm like busy and stuff Lord, I've got important things to do spreading freedom and marching progress. You know, holy stuff. I'm doin' your work because you were too lazy to, in the words of the prophet Larry the Cable Guy, 'git r done' . Why tomorrow I'm helicopterin' into Annapolis to bring the Israelis and the less terry terr'ists together.

VISITOR: I am here to teach you, how to resolve your problems, how to end the scourge of war.

BUSH: What?

VISITOR: It is time for you to learn the way to truth.

BUSH: But, ah already know the way to truth, and truth is whatever ah believe, 'cause I'm a truth-speakin' guy, 'cause I'm plain spoken and plain spoken people never lie. Why ah 'am even bringin' my special portable Presidential Rug with me. I've pretty much spent the last year concentratin' on it -- the rug I mean. It's like ah'm Trent Lott. It's really plush, you should see the padding underneath it, like Trent Lott. I got the whole story to tell about it, should kill a couple hours too. Then when they are so in awe of me and mah carpet I'll get the heck outta there and they'll have no choice but to make peace because it and me are so frickin' awesome. We're even havin' it catered by The Olive Garden. So you can see, ah have a plan that cannot fail.

Say, do, you know that we both share the same father?

VISITOR: Um, yeah, about that.

BUSH: Hey, you know ah'm right. There's the trinity for example. There's dad, there's you, and then the Holy Me.

VISITOR: Well, I'm afraid you are misunderstanding a couple things.

BUSH: Are you calling my mommy a liar, Jew boy?

VISITOR: Look, you must learn that you cannot use others to carry out your will, nor force your will upon others. People must gather and solve their own problems, not beaten into capitulation, or issuing meaningless platitudes or making meaningless gestures. Remember blessed are the peacemakers? It takes, as you like to say, hard work.

Announcing "Liberals want to save the whales. Environmentalists want to save the Everglades. Conservatives want to save the Confederate flag but we just want to SAVE TUCKER," two Floridians have launched a site to keep their favorite cable host on the air. The page includes a link to send an email to NBC executives with this plea: "We respectfully urge NBC to reconsider this decision and save TUCKER!"

It's nice that Mr. & Mrs. Carlson have remained somewhat active in their retirement years.

Members of the Baghdad Brigade receive $300 a man each month from the Americans, who also provide vehicles, uniforms and flak jackets. In return the brigade keeps out Al-Qaeda, dismantles roadside bombs and patrols the area, a task performed with considerable swagger by many of its 4,000 recruits...

A 50% cut in car and roadside bombs, shootings and rocket and mortar attacks since June has brought hope that some of the 5m Iraqis driven from home may soon be able to go back. Yet many – Kahiriya Musa among them – are too frightened of the new militias and the ethnic cleansers in their ranks to risk moving...

Then the militias threw in their lot with the Americans to get rid of Al-Qaeda, but without losing their animosity for the occupying forces that many of them had been fighting.

Now they are starting to think about what happens when the Americans leave and how they can counter Iranian-backed Shi’ite forces. Abu Omar, an intelligence officer with the Baghdad Brigade in Abu Ghraib, was candid.

“Of course the coming war is with the [Shi’ite] militias,” he said. “God willing, we will defeat them and get rid of them just as we did Al-Qaeda.”

Abu Maroof, one of the brigade’s commanders, said that he regarded the Shi’ite militias, which include the Mahdi Army of the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, as more dangerous than the United States. But he is also increasingly hostile to the government of Nouri al-Maliki, which is reluctant to absorb militia members into the official Iraqi security forces.

“If the government continues to reject them, let it be clear that this brigade will eventually take its revenge,” he warned.

Bribery accomplishes a deferral as long as possible ... so "The Decider" can proclaim when he is out of office, "'Taint mah fault" ["taint" being the operative word].

Al Gore, Nobel Peace Prize Winner, will visit the White House today -- or as it should be known in a just world, his residence. There he will be perfunctorily congratulated by our anointed Decider. I'm sure Bush will handle it with all the grace and aplomb we have come to expect. Commander Codpiece will demand Gore provide a monogrammed "Official Nobel Prize Committee Bush #43 Jersey".

Sunday, November 25, 2007

According to the Patrick Healy of the NY Times, if conditions keep getting better in Iraq then Bush won't be as much of a drag on his party.

If security continues to improve, President Bush could become less of a drag on his party, too, and Republicans may have an easier time zeroing in on other issues, such as how the Democrats have proposed raising taxes in difficult economic times.

Where shall Mr. Healy go for the money shot, I mean quote, on this one? One guess. If I were a journalist writing a story about how "improving conditions" in Iraq might make campaigning for Democratic presidential candidates more difficult I would go to a "Democrat" who supported the Iraq invasion and every other tactic pushed by the administration, and has been wrong at every turn. Whaddaya know, it's Michael O'Hanlon!

“The politics of Iraq are going to change dramatically in the general election, assuming Iraq continues to show some hopefulness,” said Michael E. O’Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who is a supporter of Mrs. Clinton’s and a proponent of the military buildup. “If Iraq looks at least partly salvageable, it will be important to explain as a candidate how you would salvage it — how you would get our troops out and not lose the war. The Democrats need to be very careful with what they say and not hem themselves in.”

That's right, if you want to write a story about the politics of Iraq and how it is like quicksand for Democrats, go to someone who has always been wrong about all things Iraq. Up is down and down is up in the world of the beltway establishment and MSM, but if I were Hillary Clinton I wouldn't listen to one bit of advice coming from O'Hanlon.

There have been signs that American influence over Iraqi politics is dwindling after the recent improvements in security — which remain incomplete, as shown by a deadly bombing Friday in Baghdad. While Bush officials once said they aimed to secure “reconciliation” among Iraq’s deeply divided religious, ethnic and sectarian groups, some officials now refer to their goal as “accommodation.”

Juan Cole gets to the heart of the matter -- the Bush Administration's innate assholeness that they polish into a prolapsed anus of malevolence.

In fact, I hereby declare the Bush Administration, "America's Prolapsed Anus of Malevolence" (please make your royalty payments via PayPal should you use it)...but I digress:

Whoever is responsible for this disgusting travesty is an automatic candidate for Keith Olbermann's "Worst Person in the World." My guess is that the trail will lead back to Donald "its not a guerrilla war" Rumsfeld and Richard Bruce "most prominent traitor in American history" Cheney. Gregg Zoroya of USA Today reports that 20,000 US troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and suffered brain injuries were never classified as wounded by the Pentagon and are not included in the official statistics for the wounded issued by the Department of Defense. Although some of the under-reporting of this condition could be inadvertent, the scale of it strongly suggests an underlying policy.

Which means, of course, that is underlying policy. The brain-damaged meet the soulless ones who get them coming and going -- and call it the height of patriotism.

After all, if Patriotism can't be devoid of any benefits to the Patriotic, what's really the point of perpetuating the modern GOP?

Australia’s Labor Party swept into power at national elections on Saturday, propelling 50-year-old former diplomat Kevin Rudd into office on a wave of support for generational change.

The surge to Labor left conservative Prime Minister John Howard struggling to hold on to even his own parliamentary seat, which he has held since 1974, putting him in danger of becoming the first prime minister since 1929 to lose his constituency.

Howard can devote his remaining years to playing Dick Cheney in a variety of Haunted Houses and Mock War Crimes Trials. The "History Channel" may want to sign him up for recreations...

Friday, November 23, 2007

Obeying the Gods of Capitalism with one long drive, followed by another long drive back to you own residence is NOT conducive to putting up a lot of posts.

On the other hand, I fulfilled my "male" points by buying a marked down GPS system for "the Fezmobile". Of course, I didn't need one. I just decided I wanted one so I could know -- at all times -- exactly where I am [even though I already know -- it's reaffirmation].

Republicans start to admit that Bush is a moron, in what passes for their polite society.

In response, Corker said, “Let me say this. George Bush is a very compassionate person. He’s a very good person. And a lot of people don’t see that in him, and there’s many people in this room who might disagree with that…. I just felt a little bit underwhelmed by our discussions, the complexity of them, the depth of them.”

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

President Bush yesterday offered his strongest support of embattled Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, saying the general "hasn't crossed the line" and "truly is somebody who believes in democracy."

Bush spoke nearly three weeks after Musharraf declared emergency rule, sacked members of the Supreme Court and began a roundup of journalists, lawyers and human rights activists. Musharraf's government yesterday released about 3,000 political prisoners, although 2,000 remain in custody, according to the Interior Ministry.

The comments, delivered in an interview with ABC News anchor Charles Gibson, contrasted with previous administration statements -- including by Bush himself -- expressing grave concern over Musharraf's actions. In his first public comments on the crisis two weeks ago, Bush said his aides bluntly warned Musharraf that his emergency measures "would undermine democracy."

It's fabulous that the Decider has decided the most democratic thing possible is a military takeover.

What sterling and proud logic.

Shorter Bush:

Arresting your Opponents, including Supreme Court Justices, Suspending the Constitution, and Declaring Marshall Law IS NOT CROSSING THE LINE and are the actions of someone who believes in Democracy.

So I guess we'll "have ta unnerstan" if and when it happens here?

I'm now going to go drink myself to death - or as Christopher Hitchens would call it, Wednesday.

I will travel the next two days to Houston and Corpus Christi on a tour arranged by the American Petroleum Institute (API). The tour includes other bloggers, including Bruce McQuain of QandO, who announced it earlier today. We will take a tour of Chevron’s Blind Faith platform before they deploy it — a platform designed to pump a new field in the Gulf of Mexico. We will also tour their visualization center, get a briefing on deepwater drilling, and have a lengthy Q&A session with Chevron representatives.

Obviously, I hope to get a better perspective on oil drilling, the petroleum industry, and energy policy as a result.

Yeah...thank goodness record oil profits have allowed the industry to reach out to and invest in alternative energy sources it's apologists.

Next thing you know Rich Lowry will be going on those NRO Cruises and not be thought of as "man candy".

U.S. President George W. Bush (L) looks out from the Thanksgiving Shrine alongside actors in period costume, Jim Curtis (C) and Mattie Jones, during his visit to the Berkeley Plantation in Charles City November 19, 2007...REUTERS/Jason Reed

The 1970s were a great moment for musical integration. Artists like the Rolling Stones and Springsteen drew on a range of musical influences and produced songs that might be country-influenced, soul-influenced, blues-influenced or a combination of all three. These mega-groups attracted gigantic followings and can still fill huge arenas.

Yeah, the Stones and the 1970s, what a glorious era that was for them musically compared that that "fallow" period that was the 60s.

First of all, my dream GOP candidate is Mitt Romney -- not only because he is an incomparable phony, but because every Democratic candidate with a chance would absolutely CRUSH him in the general election.

Second of all, look at Rudy crumble in New Hampshire. Imagine him barely beating Paul or Huckabee, or goodness, finishing fourth?

And finally, grandpa Fred. The bloom is off the corpse. WOW! From GOP savior to sixth place in about one month. And it's not like he's been working hard.

Monday, November 19, 2007

Ethanol, the centerpiece of President George W. Bush's plan to wean the U.S. from oil, is 2007's worst energy investment.

The corn-based fuel tumbled 57 percent from last year's record of $4.33 a gallon and drove crop prices to a 10-year high. Production in the U.S. tripled after Morgan Stanley, hedge fund firm D.E. Shaw & Co. and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla helped finance a building boom.

Even worse for investors and the Bush administration, energy experts contend ethanol isn't reducing oil demand. Scientists at Cornell University say making the fuel uses more energy than it creates, while the National Research Council warns ethanol production threatens scarce water supplies.

As oil nears $100 a barrel, ethanol markets are so depressed that distilleries are shutting from Iowa to Germany. An investor who put $10 million into ethanol on Dec. 31 now has $7.5 million, a loss of 25 percent. Florida and Georgia have banned sales during the summer, when the fuel may evaporate and create smog.

``I don't anticipate any sort of immediate rebound,'' says Barry Frazier, the 50-year-old president of Center Ethanol LLC in suburban St. Louis. ``It's going to take 12 to 24 months before the market is able to absorb the large amount of new capacity.''

Jonathan S. Landay wrote for McClatchy Newspapers in October that the current "U.S.-Russian tensions are a far cry from June 2001, when Bush declared after his first meeting with Putin in Slovenia that he'd looked in the Russian leader's eyes, found him 'trustworthy' and 'was able to get a sense of his soul.'

"Bush and his aides 'grossly misjudged Putin,' considering him 'a good guy and one of us,' said Michael McFaul of Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

"The former KGB officer created that illusion partly by appearing to share Bush's political and religious convictions, standard tradecraft employed by intelligence officers to recruit spies, he said.

"'Putin . . . is a brilliant case officer,' said Carlos Pasqual, a former senior State Department official now at The Brookings Institution, a center-left policy organization in Washington."

I attended a talk today by Stephen Biddle, a first-rate military strategist who has been working with General Petraeus, about military progress in Iraq...Overall, he presented a rosier portrait than I would have, based on his recent ten day visit to Iraq, but he's a serious guy so I take him seriously - though I noticed that he concentrated almost exclusively on the local level progress and hardly mentioned Maliki or the national political level at all. Without getting in to his arguments or my reservations, I just wanted to lay out Biddle's best case scenario as he presented it: if everything goes right and if the US continues to "hit the lottery" with the spread of local ceasefires and none of a dozen different spoilers happens, then a patchwork of local ceasefires between heavily armed, mistrustful communities could possibly hold if and only if the US keeps 80,000-100,000 troops in Iraq for the next twenty to thirty years. And that's the best case scenario of one of the current strategy's smartest supporters.

It would be nice if one of our media meatheads would mention these little caveats, but they won't. Exhibit A this morning is the Washington Post's Peter Baker who is determined to find the pony.

When you toss out the Supreme Court you don't like by declaring martial law and then stuff it with cronies you get a decision in your favor.

Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar dismissed three opposition petitions challenging Musharraf's victory in last month's presidential election, saying they had been "withdrawn" because opposition lawyers were not present in court.

Dogar turned down a request from one of the petitioners to postpone the hearings, and also refused to continue counting ballots in Florida.

Opposition figures had said they expected little from the reconstituted court, which is loaded with justices chosen by Musharraf.*

Once again, the Pakistanis have learned from their GOP masters.

*Portions of the story may have been "enhanced" for your reading pleasure.

Mr. McCain said he knew that attacking Mrs. Clinton would be an easy way to stir voters, but he disapproved of the tactics employed by Mr. Romney and Mr. Giuliani.

“I don’t think you should take shots at her, like imitating her voice,” Mr. McCain said during a discussion on his bus, referring to something Mr. Giuliani has done at campaign appearances. “I don’t know what you gain by doing that. I guess issuing inflammatory statements can be effective. But I can’t campaign that way.”

Mr. McCain, when asked after the speech why Mrs. Clinton inspired such a visceral reaction among conservatives, said it was fueled by a media environment that thrives on clashes between extremes.

You can peruse the article for it's entire length and fail to find mention of the fact that McCain let's his audience call Clinton a "bitch" and laughs about it.

I just don't understand how Michael Gordon doesn't get assigned to cover this campaign.

The Army Corps of Engineers released flood risk maps on a block-by-block basis on June 20, but didn't include some technical data, preventing independent assessments of the accuracy of the maps.

The maps showed that the improvements made to the city canals' drainage systems would reduce flooding during a major storm by about 5.5 feet in Lakeview and nearby neighborhoods. The maps were based on a storm that has the likelihood of occurring at least once in 100 years.

But in a report released Nov. 7, Corps scientists estimated that the actual benefit the system would provide would be just 6 inches.

From beginning to end, New Orleans and its poor and middle-class (Democrat voting) population have been the victim of one screw up or act of maliciousness after another. They are either being ignored because of who they are, or purposefully cheated, screwed and disbursed to weaken their political standing and power. Already these screw ups are ignored or blamed on the victims. To the extent they ever come to light in the media it is over-produced to such a degree as to set many peoples eyes rolling as the victims of all this complain. They are no longer allowed to be what they truly are, innocent victims, but whiners and suckers of the taxpayers teat (i.e. "you know how those people are").

Years from now, when the dust settles and the records speak (and hardly anyone cares any longer) the true picture of what happened there will shame anyone who will listen -- and it won't be many.

In a nation that pays David Brooks, Charles Krauthammer, Michelle Malkin, and the Doughy Pantload to abuse the English Language and all proper forms of logic once or twice a week, she still may be the worst columnist on earth.

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Matthews and the rest of the MSNBC varsity club don't have any self-awareness, so I know they also don't have a clue about what's driving this pathetic show of misogyny, but these particular comments are not new to me. I suspect I'm not alone in having been told by men over the years to "correct" my voice --- that it's too strident, too shrill, too grating. That I was being "emotional" and a little bit "hysterical." "Shhhh", "Tone it down, you're hurting my ears." "Settle down." I would guess that most opinionated, smart women who've worked in corporate America (or had a bad boyfriend) know what I'm talking about.

It took me a long time to realize that it tends to happen when I'm winning an argument and that it's actually a bit of misdirection which often, depending on your personality and self-confidence, results in either getting spitting mad or wilting. It can be extremely effective at derailing a good point --- and infantalizing women, particularly when it's done in public.

Q: Well what do you attribute this whole change on the ground to? Is this due to what is called “the surge,” or good diplomacy by the U.S. military, or just luck?

BIDDLE: All of those things have some role but I would put “luck” as probably the biggest.

Here's another thing about "luck" -- it runs out.

Of course, one can ask just how "lucky" it has been for the residents of Baghdad who have been essentially cordoned into solely Sunni & Shiia enclaves? When the ethnic cleansing ends -- there's fewer folks around to kill at one's leisure -- you have to work for it, meaning only the clumsy sociopaths are active. By putting thousand more troops into Baghdad we managed to facilitate the cleansing without by not allowing that messy thing called "resistance". Death goes down, repression remains somehow worse. "Luck" comes in only being there for the climatic and tragic resolution.

Of course, there is also the fact that Al Sadr ordered a stand down by his forces at the end of August for six months -- little noticed at the time, it seems to have been the real deal. Meanwhile, Al-Sadr's Shiia nationalists, and other Shiia groups of less national orientation are turning in their "Risk Cards" and assembling their armies for when they pick up the dice again in the Spring. One can hope the pause lasts, but this is Iraq, what are the odds of things going well for all that long?

Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistani president, says he instituted emergency rule for the extra powers it would give him to push back the militants who have carved out a mini-state in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

But in the last several days, the militants have extended their reach, capturing more territory in Pakistan’s settled areas and chasing away frightened policemen, local government officials said.

As inconspicuous as it might be in a nation of 160 million people, the takeover of the small Alpuri district headquarters this week was considered a particular embarrassment for General Musharraf. It showed how the militants could still thumb their noses at the Pakistani Army.

In fact, local officials and Western diplomats said, there is little evidence that the 12-day-old emergency decree has increased the government’s leverage in fighting the militants, or that General Musharraf has used the decree to take any extraordinary steps to combat them.

Golly, Mooshy seems to get Mooshier every day. He should really flee the country for 'Murica so he can run FEMA.

But I decided to see if I could develop a "self-cutting" fetish instead. Seemed more productive.

YMMV.

Seriously, does anyone learn anything really from any of these debates other than the talking heads are complete assholes? And we haven't actually "learned" it, it just gets reinforced from what we've already known.

How totally unexpected. Now if Mitt locks up the Duggars he's pretty much got a plurality of the GOP base locked up (if they can keep from mounting each other long enough to go vote in the primaries).

Of course, you know what this means...

Doorbells ring - in the mornin’? It's our "Mission" for Implorin'.That Mitt's Number One for replacin' God's son!Presidin' in his Mormon Underwear.He's good lookin' there's no denying, for his pants K-Lo's tryin'.But he's purer than Christ, and at least twice as nice!Posin' in his Mormon underwear.

On FoxNews Sean can build us a strawman,then pretend that Mormons are okay.People will say, "Yeah, but they're all freaks, man!" Hey at least the Mormons aren't gay.

Later on, we’ll conspire as we dream by the fire.As snug as a bug in an Osmond girl's rug!Touchin’ Mitt's open Mormon underwear.